Concealed But Not Canceled

0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:03.400 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.400 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:08.360 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.280 Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.440 Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:14.000 in your life. 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:19.599 Enjoy the message. Come on, praise Him for every valley 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:30.920 and every mountain and stepfast. Love is better than life. Wow. 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.280 What an awesome God you are no doubt about that. 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.879 Everything in our life points to the fact that there 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:41.800 was a steady hand guiding us. 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.000 And now Lord, we clap our hands. 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:50.840 To celebrate your hand that never left our lives in Jesus' name. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.760 Amen, you know what you got to do? 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.560 High five to eighteen people and tell them it was 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:58.800 the hand of God. 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:02.840 Raise the Lord. 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:17.240 Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Did you do eighteen or did 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:26.800 you round up lazy bones everybody online as well? Give 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.720 a high five in the chat. Look, fist pump in 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.800 the chat. Let us know you're here too. Our epham 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:33.840 around the world. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:44.400 Today. I have a word for our anniversary. I told 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:44.880 the Lord. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.240 Hey, I tried to tell God several months ago that 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.559 I wanted to invite a guest to speak for the anniversary. 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.520 I said, this is great Sunday for me to just 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.360 enjoy all that you have done, Lord and the works 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.040 thy hands have made. So invite a guest speaker, and 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:01.360 I even had a little list of guests that I 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.640 wanted to bring. You know, almost anybody will come preach 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.280 to you because you are the most amazing church in 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.040 the world. No, I'm saying that that's not bragging, is 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.480 a fact you are the greatest, all right. 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:15.640 I'm not saying the greatest on stage. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.919 I'm saying the greatest people, the greatest volunteers, the greatest 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.880 prayer warriors, the most generous, amazing people in the world are. 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:25.520 Right around you. 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.000 So I was getting my list ready of guest speakers, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.000 and then I saw something that I felt in the 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.239 scripture that I was supposed to preach on this day. 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.040 So then I was conflicted, because I want the day 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.400 off so I can just cry through the baptism video 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.040 like you do and not have to dry my snot 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.000 and put vizin in my eyes and get up here 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.120 and pretend to be all composed. But so when I 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.120 saw this word, though, it really felt important and it 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:57.440 felt appropriate for the day. 0:02:57.760 --> 0:02:59.280 Now Graham looked at me, because we went a little 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:00.000 longer in worship. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.560 We had a video and Holly baptized half the town 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.240 of Charlotte here at Valentine and at all of our locations. 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:12.840 Let's welcome all of our locations right now. So we 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.000 sang and we and we prayed, and we praised, and 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:16.959 we sang and we prayed. 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:19.799 And Graham looked at me and goes, are you preaching today? 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:20.760 Like? 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.799 How long is this going to be? I got an 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:29.440 appointment with a bull at Chipotle. You'd preaching too. What 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.799 truth of the matter is, not only should we. 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.680 Really make time for God's presence that matters the most, 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.560 But I believe that if you listen good, I can 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:44.600 go quick. So I want to turn to a scripture 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:48.320 in Isaiah forty nine, because when I told the Lord 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.200 that I would get a guest speaker, he said, okay, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.680 then you be the guest. Because it's my church. The 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:59.480 Lord said, he said, I'm inviting you say yes. So 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:04.560 here is my yes Isaiah forty nine, verses one through four. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:12.680 The word of the Lord. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.080 Listen to me, you islands, hear this, you distant nations. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:23.000 Before I was born, the Lord called me from my 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.880 mother's womb. He has spoken my name. He made my 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:31.039 mouth like a sharpened sword. In the shadow of his hand. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:32.440 He hid me. 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.560 He made me into a polished arrow, and concealed me 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.520 in his quiver. He said to me, you are my 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.839 servant Israel, and whom I will display my splendor. But 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:52.520 I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.719 my strength for nothing at all. Who hasn't felt like that? 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:02.400 Come on, who hasn't felt like that? Someday the servant 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.000 of the Lord feels unappreciated and unseen, And he says, so, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.440 I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:16.440 for nothing at all. Keep reading, yet, and that's the 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.320 word the devil doesn't want you to get to in 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.039 this text. I said, I have labored in vain. I 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:26.920 have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet everybody hollered. 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:27.559 Yet. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.839 Yeah, that's an important word for this message today. So 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.640 I want you to emphasize it. Just three letters, but 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.760 say it with everything you got. Say yet, what is 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:44.960 due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is. 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:45.760 With my God. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.359 The word of the Lord. Do you receive it? The 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.960 word of the Lord? For our eighteenth anniversary. Is this 0:05:54.279 --> 0:06:05.400 concealed but not canceled. Concealed but not canceled. I thank 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.960 you for favor God as I preach this message. I 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.320 thank you for penetration of these principles that have ministered 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.120 to me. I thank you for each precious person that 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.479 you brought into the room. And I thank you that 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:21.000 you're going to do it like you always do, in 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.719 a way that you've never done. And we will give 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:29.560 you glory in Jesus' name. We praise you in advance. Hallelujah. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:37.159 It is so amen. Amen, you may be seated, concealed 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:45.359 but not canceled. Now let me start this personally. A 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.360 few years ago, I was going through one of those 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.440 valley seasons of life and ministry that we all have 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.400 to pass through, and I was throwing a pity party. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.159 And even though there were so many things to be 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.640 grateful for in this ministry, I found myself doing a 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.799 lot of avoiding what I know that God had assigned 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.120 me to do. I know, I'm going quick, because you know, 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:07.960 Graham's got to get out of here. 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:10.720 He's the greatest. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.680 But just to start this off for the sake of 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.560 time from a personal place, I was avoiding things that 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.800 I had asked God to give me, and I started 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.920 canceling things that were a priority in my life. I 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:28.960 was talking to a friend about this, who's very wise 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.240 and more experienced than me, and I told my friend, 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.120 I just can't believe that, after all God has done 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.840 for me, I can't find my motivation. And I'm grateful 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.560 and I'm thankful, and I praise him for what he's done, 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.480 but I guess I'm just getting lazy. 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:46.200 My friend laughed. 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.880 My friend said, anybody who's known you for five minutes 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.800 knows there's not a lazy bone in your body. One 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.520 of the hardest working people I've ever met in any profession. 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:04.800 It's not that you're lazy, it's that you're afraid. You know, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.800 somebody can say something and all of a sudden, it's 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:12.120 like they turn into Yoda and you say, tell me 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:12.760 more about that. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.440 I'm not lazy. I'm afraid. Yeah, you're afraid. You're afraid. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:21.360 You're not motivated right now because you're afraid, and you're 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:26.800 afraid because you have accumulated a few failures and disappointments, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.840 and so now you're not doing the thing that you're 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:37.400 called to do not because you're lazy, bad, evil, wicked, hateful, 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:38.559 or an apostate. 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:40.960 You're not lazy, you're afraid. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.520 You're not showing up because you don't want to fall short. 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.760 Turned around my entire view of it in that one 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:04.080 conversation that the fear of falling short was keeping me 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:09.640 from showing up. This passage that I read for an 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:14.040 emotional context hopefully registered to you on multiple levels as 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.080 I read it, where the servant of the Lord prophesying 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.559 about Jesus ultimately but through the vehicle and the human 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.480 vessel named Isaiah, who prophesied around the eighth century in 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.240 a very perilous time, is sharing about his confidence in 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.520 God's calling on his life. Just to mention it again, 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.080 because after I read this scripture and point out a 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:35.600 few things, I'm going to share it with you a 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:36.920 story that will bring. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.080 It to life. He says, before I was born, the 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:41.320 Lord called me. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.280 Everybody say called, and right now put it in the 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.080 comment say called, and just personalize it and say I'm called. 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:50.480 He said, from my. 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.120 Mother's womb, he has spoken my name. He made my 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.760 mouth like a sharpened sword in the shadow. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:57.640 Of his hand. 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:03.520 He hid me me into a polished arrow and concealed 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.800 me in his quiver. Now, what drew my attention to 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.959 this text for our purpose today is that you can 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:17.920 be called and concealed at the same time. You can 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:22.880 be called and concealed at the same time. You can 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.200 be in the will of God but not feel God 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.400 at the same time. And this draws my attention not 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.520 only to Isaiah, but to all of the people that 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.360 I pastor who feel sometimes like the hand of God 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.320 has left your life. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.080 You know that He put you where he put you 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:43.880 for a purpose. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.840 At a time, and then at times you go through 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.240 seasons and maybe even just hours in the day where 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:51.960 it feels as if the hand of. 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:53.360 God has lifted. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:55.840 I should talk for a moment about the hand of 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.120 God before we move on, because there is no other 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.000 reason that I'm here celebrating the eighteenth anniversary of this 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.120 church today as your pastor than the hand of God. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:12.280 The fact that I'm here and saying, and married. 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.680 And not addicted to substances other than diet coke. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.600 Leave me alone about. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:28.200 It aspar dame or amphetamines. You decide, I'll drink the 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:34.880 diet coke and stay married. No, it's the hand of 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.560 God that I'm here, not my skill. It's the hand 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.480 of God that I'm here, not my status. It's the 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.840 hand of God that I'm here. This church was great 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:51.160 before it was ever famous. We live in a time 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.240 where fame is conflated with greatness, and people can't tell 0:11:55.280 --> 0:12:01.199 the two apart. But everything great is not famous, and 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:13.800 everything famous is not great. Concealed, Isaiah said, concealed, and 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.840 it's amazing because if you can get in this with me, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.280 it's going to be so beautiful when it pops off 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:20.120 for you personally. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.199 He says that my reward is in God's hand. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.000 It is the hand of God that decides when I'm promoted. 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.320 It is the hand of God that decides when the 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.360 people come into my life, when the people exit from 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:40.800 my life. God is deciding, and God is deciphering, and 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:45.560 God is discerning, and God is developing with his hand. 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.800 It was nothing but the hand of God. Say that 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.800 it was nothing but the hand of God. Look at 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:54.680 the person next to you and say, I know i'm pretty, 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.800 I know I'm cute, I know i'm handsome, I know 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.080 I'm charismatic, But none of that is what got me here. 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:06.920 It was nothing but the hand of God. Yeah, my 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:08.040 parents helped. 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:12.319 Out, but it was his hand on them that got 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:17.800 me through. It's nothing but the hand of God. It 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.080 was nothing but the hand of God that got us 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.520 through COVID as a church. It was nothing but the 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.679 hand of God that got you through that divorce and 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.480 kept you with the shred of your hope for love 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.760 in the future. It was nothing but the hand of 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.960 God that you got in the car drunk but still 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:41.400 didn't die. Somehow an angel kept you alive. You know it, 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.640 and I know it. So let's not pretend that we 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.560 were so good and so gifted we came to praise 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.959 him and lit our hands because it was. 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:53.360 With hand. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.439 High five three people and say. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.320 It was nothing but the hand of God, nothing but 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.480 the hand of God, nothing but the hand of God. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:06.560 Yeah. 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:10.959 Yeah, I heard. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.480 A saying one time, tell me, if you agree where 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:20.080 God guides, he provides, is it true? Won't he do it? 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.800 How many have a testimony. If you go down in 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.040 the deepest valley, there will be grass in that valley 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.400 because the good shepherd will never lead you somewhere, He 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:33.360 won't feed you. 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.200 His hand has provided. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.200 And I heard how the hand of God provided, and 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.040 I heard how the hand of God gave, and I 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.120 heard how the hand of God would provide. And I've 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.360 seen how the hand of God can provide. 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:55.880 What I had to. 0:14:55.880 --> 0:15:01.680 Realize in the moments of my discouragement and in the 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:06.720 places of my deepest deficiency, is that the hand of 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:19.360 God that provides is also the hand that hides. Isaiah said, 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:25.640 I felt like it was all for nothing. The disciples 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.120 who followed Jesus watched him go down into the ground, 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.680 and the two on the road to Ammaeus. In Luke's Gospel, 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:35.960 I believe about the twenty fourth chapter said it best. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:42.760 We had hoped he was the one, but they buried him. 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.000 It was all for nothing to leave our boats in 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.200 our nets and follow him. It was all for nothing 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.640 to step out on faith. It was all for nothing 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.840 to love that person who used my love. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.640 As leverage to hurt me. It was all. 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:03.720 It made me feel like less of a little whiny 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:08.360 baby brat that. Isaiah said. I know God made me, 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.760 I know He's got me, and i know I'm in 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.760 his hand. But look at verse two, so beautiful. I 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.160 fought back to tears while I was preparing this message, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.200 because I wanted to save the emotion for our moment together, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.480 so we could feel it together. He said that God 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:31.280 took me in his hand and he hid me. Isn't 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.120 that The part that they never tell you about God's 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:38.280 hand is that sometimes the greatest gift that He gives 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:46.800 you is hiddenness. And so while we are here today 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.760 on our eighteenth anniversary, thanking God for all the many. 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:55.600 Ways, great is I faithfulness, Oh God, my Father, there 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:00.240 is no shadow of turning with thee thout. Change is 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.200 not thy compassions. They feel not as thou hast been, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:09.040 though forever will be all I have needed. Thy hand 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.879 hath provided, Thy hand hath provided. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:26.919 And then that same hand that provides sometimes hides. I 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.359 want to speak to everybody today who is in a 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:35.399 season of your life where you sense that God is hidden, 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:41.040 that you are hidden, and the reason you're going through 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:46.040 what you're going through has not been revealed. Turn with 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.560 me to the words of Isaiah, who said that God 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.879 spoke of me before I was born, and made my 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.399 mouth like a sharpened sword in the. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.159 Shadow of his hand. He hid me. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:05.040 He made me into a polished arrow, and concealed me 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.919 in his quiver. Do you remember the first time you 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:14.560 ever heard the phrase they got canceled. I remember very 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.879 well someone saying that a major celebrity was canceled, and 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:20.320 I said, what their shows off the air? 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.119 They said, no, doesn't mean that. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.760 That's what it meant in the eighties, back when there 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.879 used to be sitcoms. This is not full house. It 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.160 means they were canceled. It means they did something wrong 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.280 and they got canceled. I said they died. No, they 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.960 got canceled. I said they got fired. No, they got canceled. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.959 I said, explain to me what it means. And what 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.520 they showed me was comments that people were making about 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.920 this person that were disagreeing with what the person did, 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.239 and they called that canceled. Now, these comments were not 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.760 coming from the chief executive officer of the company. They 0:18:57.800 --> 0:18:59.959 were coming from people who didn't even know the person. 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.000 And they said they got canceled. 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:05.240 And a little phrase went through me. 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:06.560 And I want to see if I can get it 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:12.040 to go through you too today. Man can't cancel what 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.600 God created. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.440 Put that in the comments section. Let's do something good 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:20.600 with the comment section. 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.880 Repeat after me, man can't cancel. 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.720 What God created? Or if you prefer the. 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:35.679 Language of Isaiah, Man can't cancel what God is called. 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.440 Now shout, I'm called. I was called before I got here. 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.639 I was called before I blew it. I was called 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.920 before I went through this sickness. I was called before 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.119 I passed through these waters. I was called before I 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:56.040 came to this challenge. So if I'm called by God, 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:01.000 how can I be canceled by man? I understand we 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.960 can lose a reputation and we need to have character. 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:06.919 I understand we can make mistakes that have to suffer 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.760 the consequences. I understand there's accountability for those who are 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.359 in the public eye, but I'm not talking about those 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:14.480 in the public eye. 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:19.760 I'm talking about those who feel hidden in this season. 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:25.200 Of your life, and you feel like nobody even cares 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:30.440 that you're here. Because you're here, but you're hidden. Let 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:35.040 me illustrate right now. There are frequencies going through the 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.760 air making my voice go to your heart, hopefully your heart. First, 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.320 it has to pass through your ears. And in order 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.199 for the noise that is coming from my mouth, and 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.320 I'm shouting way too loud, so let me modulate down. 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.840 In order for the sound to reach you where I am, 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.280 there must be vibrations. But the vibrations are not visible, 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.239 and yet we all believe the vibrations because we know 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:00.960 that the words that I'm speaking are going through the 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.719 air and maybe into your heart or maybe in one 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:04.119 ear and. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:04.680 Out the other. 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.399 But something that is vibrating is creating something that is 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:09.200 not visible. 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.960 And it is proof for the fact that if God 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:12.640 speaks a. 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:16.199 Word over your life, you might not see it, but 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:18.560 that doesn't mean it isn't here. 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.760 Right now, I. 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:26.640 Came to have an anniversary party for every word that 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.520 God spoke over your life from the womb. 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.200 He spoke it before you were you. 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.160 You spoke it before you got your Social Security digits. 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.520 He spoke it before you messed up the last relationship. 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:42.760 He spoke it. 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.760 And if he spoke it, and if he created it, 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:47.200 and if he made. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:48.720 It, you can't mess it up. 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:57.399 But so much, all right, all right, all right, Yesia. 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.160 Let me teach you Sunday school story. Now. They let 0:21:59.160 --> 0:21:59.560 this one. 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:05.080 Out of your Sunday school storyboard flannel graph textbooks, and 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:09.439 it is quite possibly the most inappropriate story that I 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.959 could share with you on such a glorious, beautiful occasion 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:14.880 as an anniversary of a church on the eighteenth year. 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:25.080 It involves a dagger, it involves a stabbing, it involves 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:29.760 a king named Egglon and a warrior named Ehud. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:30.480 I'm gonna go quit. 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.200 I'm gonna go quick, but I gotta show you this. 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:42.040 God has secret weapons. God has secret weapons. He has 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.760 more than one way to win in your life. He 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:47.040 has more than one way to make a difference in 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:49.920 the world. So the Israelites were doing what they always did, 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.159 turning away from God. They were turning away from the 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:55.400 one who rescued them, turning away from the one who 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:57.359 were deeming the Let's pick up the text in Judges 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:03.160 chapter three, the most inappropriate anniversary Bible text. But I'm 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:05.800 just a guest speaker today, so what do I know? 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:09.560 The Lord took me to Judges chapter three, verse twelve. Again, 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:11.280 the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.240 And because they did this evil, the Lord gave Egglon, 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.200 king of Moab, power over Israel. Now I want you 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:19.560 to understand, the enemy has no power over you other 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:21.920 than what you give him by your disobedience to God. 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:27.840 Always remember that you're in God's hand. Say I'm in 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:32.520 God's hand. He sharpened me in the shadow, he polished 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.320 me in the secret place, getting me ready for such 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:39.320 a time as this. Now, the Bible says in verse 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:41.800 thirteen that God wanted to act on behalf of his people. 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.640 So this king Eglon, he took a little too far. 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:47.080 He got the Ammonites and the Malachites to join him. 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:49.680 Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:51.399 the city of Palms. So they're under attack, and you 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:53.399 may be too. You may be under attacked in your 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:56.720 life right now. I think the biggest factor that determines 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:59.320 whether you're under attack from the enemy is whether you're alive. 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:03.480 So the answer to that is, yes, you're under attack 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:05.960 in some way, shape or form. And it may be 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:07.679 a long range attack, or it may be something that's 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:08.600 happening immediately. 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:10.320 But watch what happened in verse fourteen. 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:14.879 The Israelites were subject to Egglon, king of Moab, for 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:18.119 eighteen years. 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:21.800 And now you see why I picked this passage that 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:22.520 got my attention. 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:26.840 Eighteen years and I'm like, yeah, but Lord, we hadn't 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:31.040 been subject to Egglon for eighteen years because they were 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:32.680 having to pay tribute and they were having to bring 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.239 all this extra taxation to the king, and they were 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:37.000 oppressed by him, and it. 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:38.080 Was causing them great hardship. 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.120 Now we're here today celebrating, of course, eighteen years of blessing. 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.080 But let's see, before we finish this celebration, if there's 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:49.719 a parallel for this eighteen years of oppression that Israel 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:52.840 suffered and the victory God gave them, and the eighteen 0:24:52.920 --> 0:24:54.560 years of victory he's given us. 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:58.200 Watched this verse fifteen again. 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:02.560 The Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave 0:25:02.680 --> 0:25:10.119 them a deliverer, Ehud, a left handed man, the son 0:25:10.920 --> 0:25:13.080 of Garah, the Benjamin. 0:25:14.000 --> 0:25:14.880 And now we have. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:22.480 A completely confusing situation where God gives his people a 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:27.920 gift that makes no sense. The tribe of Benjamin, Larry 0:25:27.920 --> 0:25:33.359 Bride will tell you, is literally known as the right 0:25:33.440 --> 0:25:40.720 handed tribe because Heaven, the name Benjamin literally means son 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:42.760 of my right hand. 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:44.560 That's what it means. 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:48.840 So when God wanted to deliver his people, he sent 0:25:48.920 --> 0:25:52.440 them a left handed warrior. 0:25:53.680 --> 0:25:56.960 From a right handed tribe. 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:03.840 This makes no sense. Repeat after me, This makes no sense. 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:06.919 How many been feeling like that about a situation in 0:26:06.960 --> 0:26:07.840 your life right now? 0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:11.160 Now? This makes no sense. 0:26:12.320 --> 0:26:17.840 Why would God sharpen an arrow polish an arrow and 0:26:17.880 --> 0:26:19.080 then conceal it. 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:23.680 In a quiver. Did you notice that Isaiah chapter. 0:26:23.359 --> 0:26:26.320 Forty nine, verse two said that God hid me in 0:26:26.400 --> 0:26:30.399 the quiver? Did you know that God has a quiver. 0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:35.560 The quiver is the pouch where the archer keeps his 0:26:35.720 --> 0:26:39.159 arrows so that he can carry them to the place 0:26:39.640 --> 0:26:43.480 so that when the time is right, the arrow can 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:44.240 be launched. 0:26:44.480 --> 0:26:48.119 But until the arrow is ready to be launched, the 0:26:48.520 --> 0:26:52.040 arrow is kept in the quiver. And if you. 0:26:52.160 --> 0:26:56.680 Judge your potential by the quiver, you'll think I'm never 0:26:56.760 --> 0:26:57.600 going anywhere. 0:26:59.040 --> 0:27:01.359 If you judge watch. 0:27:00.800 --> 0:27:05.160 This the potential of your child by what they're struggling 0:27:05.200 --> 0:27:08.680 through in adolescents, you'll be preparing to give them money for. 0:27:08.640 --> 0:27:11.119 A homeless ministry named after them. 0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:14.879 But what if it is not a destination where they 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:19.240 are right now? What if you have been cursing something 0:27:19.280 --> 0:27:20.879 in your life and. 0:27:20.800 --> 0:27:26.160 What you call a curse, God calls a quiver. So 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:28.040 I came with a challenge. Church. 0:27:28.760 --> 0:27:31.639 Let me smile at you while I say it, don't. 0:27:31.440 --> 0:27:34.679 Curse your quiver. That's where God. 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:40.639 Keeps his most valuable weapons, his secret weapons, his special weapons, 0:27:40.880 --> 0:27:48.520 his sharp weapons, his ready weapons, his capable weapons, his weapons. 0:27:49.400 --> 0:27:53.600 That no one will see. Come in. 0:27:55.840 --> 0:27:59.560 Now the Bible seems kind of brilliant because I understand 0:27:59.560 --> 0:28:02.879 that it is the shameful things that God uses to 0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:06.080 shame the strong, that it is the foolishness of the 0:28:06.119 --> 0:28:09.399 cross that God used to save the world. When he 0:28:09.480 --> 0:28:12.560 got ready to redeem us from our sin, he found 0:28:12.560 --> 0:28:13.520 a virgin womb. 0:28:13.640 --> 0:28:16.439 Why this makes no sense. 0:28:16.880 --> 0:28:19.520 When he got ready to take down a Philistine giant, 0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:23.399 he chose a shepherd boy who was hidden in a 0:28:23.480 --> 0:28:24.880 field coust this. 0:28:25.080 --> 0:28:26.840 Makes no sense. 0:28:27.320 --> 0:28:30.000 When he got ready to use somebody to liberate the 0:28:30.119 --> 0:28:34.280 Israelites from Egypt, he chose a murderer who was a fugitive. 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:39.120 Why Because this makes no sense. And when this makes 0:28:39.520 --> 0:28:41.480 no sense, that's where. 0:28:41.320 --> 0:28:43.680 God can get the greatest glory. 0:28:44.080 --> 0:28:49.520 So he said, I gotta get a left handed warrior. Teezus, 0:28:52.520 --> 0:28:54.920 are you feeling this like I'm feeling this. 0:28:57.000 --> 0:28:59.960 Because somebody in here has the left hand? 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:05.800 All your life in a right handed tribe, and you 0:29:05.960 --> 0:29:09.320 never really fit in, and you've never really been what 0:29:09.400 --> 0:29:12.120 you thought you were supposed to be, and you've never 0:29:12.160 --> 0:29:14.520 really had what you felt like you were supposed to have. 0:29:14.560 --> 0:29:18.480 And what other people do easily. You struggle, for you're 0:29:18.520 --> 0:29:23.520 a left handed warrior from a right handed tribe. And 0:29:23.560 --> 0:29:27.120 God looks across fifty thousand Bingjamite soldiers. They had about 0:29:27.120 --> 0:29:30.320 forty seven thousand swordsmen and only seven hundred lefties, and 0:29:30.360 --> 0:29:34.440 God said, I need a lefty for this. God is 0:29:34.480 --> 0:29:38.640 looking for lefties, and you're about to find out why. 0:29:39.720 --> 0:29:41.480 If you want to hear the rest of this message 0:29:41.520 --> 0:29:43.400 makes some holy ghost noise. 0:29:43.120 --> 0:29:44.880 Of this eighteen year old church. 0:29:47.520 --> 0:29:52.000 Eighteen year old church. And you know what happens when 0:29:52.040 --> 0:29:54.680 you turn eighteen. You can go to war when you 0:29:54.840 --> 0:29:58.720 turn eighteen. I believe God's about to raise up a warrior. 0:29:59.080 --> 0:30:02.840 As I've reached this word today. As a matter of fact, 0:30:03.240 --> 0:30:04.640 what's sat in your hand? 0:30:05.240 --> 0:30:08.360 What's sat in your hand? What's that in your hand? 0:30:08.800 --> 0:30:16.840 You look like a whapish Isaiah said he had me 0:30:16.880 --> 0:30:21.480 in the shadows, but he wasn't punishing me. He was 0:30:21.640 --> 0:30:28.280 polishing me. I'm not being punished. I'm being polished. That's 0:30:28.360 --> 0:30:32.000 his hand working on me. That's his hand sending me down. 0:30:32.360 --> 0:30:36.280 That's his hand too, hiding me for the right time. 0:30:36.560 --> 0:30:38.840 And when the right time comes, I'm going to be 0:30:38.880 --> 0:30:41.280 the right one for the right time because he hid 0:30:41.360 --> 0:30:47.320 me in his quiver. It's not a curse, it's a 0:30:47.400 --> 0:30:59.360 quiver loneliness. Sometimes it's because you feel left handed. One 0:30:59.400 --> 0:31:02.200 of my best friends he said that three words or 0:31:02.320 --> 0:31:03.440 they're not words, they're phrases. 0:31:03.440 --> 0:31:04.760 But he said three words, but he should have said 0:31:04.760 --> 0:31:06.720 three phrases describe. 0:31:06.280 --> 0:31:11.000 How he's felt his whole life, left out, looked over, 0:31:12.120 --> 0:31:16.480 and less than. Now understand this church for the historical 0:31:16.480 --> 0:31:18.720 context that if you were left handed in a right 0:31:18.760 --> 0:31:20.760 handed tribe, they didn't let you serve in the military 0:31:21.560 --> 0:31:25.200 except in a special position, and it wasn't the best position. 0:31:26.360 --> 0:31:28.000 So imagine all the times that. 0:31:27.920 --> 0:31:33.800 Ehud got looked over, left out, and felt less than. 0:31:35.200 --> 0:31:39.280 And the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he 0:31:39.360 --> 0:31:44.080 gave them Verse fifteen Police. He gave them a deliverer 0:31:45.680 --> 0:31:50.400 from a place they weren't looking. He gave them what 0:31:50.440 --> 0:31:54.520 they had looked over. He gave them someone who had 0:31:54.560 --> 0:31:59.040 been left out. He gave them what they considered less than. 0:32:00.240 --> 0:32:02.480 And we regard Christ according to the flesh. We miss 0:32:02.520 --> 0:32:08.000 his glory because God will always wrap his favor in flesh. 0:32:08.080 --> 0:32:09.840 And when we look for God to do something, only 0:32:09.880 --> 0:32:11.920 from the right hand of what we consider a blessing. 0:32:11.960 --> 0:32:13.120 We miss what's on the left. 0:32:13.160 --> 0:32:17.440 Every time I'm trying to say, God's trying to give 0:32:17.440 --> 0:32:23.320 you stuff, but you're watching the wrong hand. You're waiting 0:32:23.360 --> 0:32:28.600 for everything to go right. But sometimes God wants to 0:32:28.600 --> 0:32:29.760 bless you from the left. 0:32:31.480 --> 0:32:32.320 Now do you see. 0:32:32.120 --> 0:32:36.320 Why I invited myself to preach this message, Because it's 0:32:36.320 --> 0:32:40.720 been eighteen years they've been struggling, and eighteen years they've 0:32:40.720 --> 0:32:44.200 been suffering. And for eighteen years God has been blessing 0:32:44.240 --> 0:32:47.600 this ministry. And for eighteen years it was nothing but 0:32:47.720 --> 0:32:49.720 his hand that kept us going. 0:32:49.520 --> 0:32:52.480 For eighteen years. 0:32:52.520 --> 0:32:55.600 And then they cried out and God sent them a 0:32:55.640 --> 0:32:56.680 blessing from the left. 0:32:56.680 --> 0:32:59.240 So WA's what happens when he goes. 0:33:00.600 --> 0:33:05.040 The Israelite sent him with tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. 0:33:05.400 --> 0:33:06.960 And I want you to picture this in your hand. 0:33:07.040 --> 0:33:12.160 Because this loaner called a loser, looked over and left out, 0:33:12.240 --> 0:33:15.200 This loaner called a loser, looked over and left out. 0:33:15.400 --> 0:33:17.840 That's not always just the way people talk about you. 0:33:17.920 --> 0:33:19.440 Sometimes that's the way you talk to yourself. 0:33:22.440 --> 0:33:29.280 This left handed warrior, this left handed judge, he takes 0:33:29.320 --> 0:33:31.000 the tribute to the enemy king. 0:33:31.800 --> 0:33:34.080 But verse sixteen says something kind of interesting. 0:33:35.120 --> 0:33:40.040 Now, Ehud, the left handed deliver had made a double 0:33:40.160 --> 0:33:45.360 edged sword about a cubit long uh huh, which he 0:33:45.480 --> 0:33:50.960 strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. So we 0:33:51.040 --> 0:33:55.200 called this conceal and carry all right, not making a 0:33:55.240 --> 0:33:56.600 political statement. 0:33:56.800 --> 0:33:59.000 This is just you know, they would have canceled the Bible. 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:05.720 Isaiah would have got canceled, Paul would have got canceled. 0:34:05.880 --> 0:34:08.080 Jeremiah definitely would have got canceled. 0:34:08.200 --> 0:34:13.120 Some of the prophets were walking around naked. Cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel. 0:34:13.520 --> 0:34:16.080 Some of us have canceled culture in our heart. 0:34:18.000 --> 0:34:20.760 And anything that doesn't look like, oh yeah, I'm coming 0:34:20.800 --> 0:34:23.160 for him this morning, Mama, I'm coming for him on 0:34:23.200 --> 0:34:25.919 my eighteenth birthday. I didn't come here just to blow 0:34:25.960 --> 0:34:28.800 a kazou. I came here to break a chain, because 0:34:28.840 --> 0:34:31.960 every once in a while you have canceled out something 0:34:32.200 --> 0:34:34.439 that God came to give you, and. 0:34:34.400 --> 0:34:41.760 You keep canceling. He carried a weapon in to deliver 0:34:41.840 --> 0:34:43.239 his people, and. 0:34:43.320 --> 0:34:47.120 It was first of all, it was concealed. Everybody say concealed. 0:34:48.040 --> 0:34:50.560 He put it under his clothing. Watch what he did. 0:34:50.880 --> 0:34:54.720 Verse seventeen. He presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab, 0:34:55.080 --> 0:34:59.879 who was a very fat man. I didn't call him 0:35:00.520 --> 0:35:06.160 the Bible did. Don't cancel me, cancel judges. He was 0:35:06.200 --> 0:35:08.640 a fat man. You couldn't even read the Bible if 0:35:08.680 --> 0:35:12.040 it was written today. He was a fat man. So 0:35:12.239 --> 0:35:14.360 I un presented the tribute. Here's your stuff. 0:35:14.360 --> 0:35:17.360 We hate you eighteen years of slavery. Keep going, And 0:35:17.480 --> 0:35:18.359 he sent the. 0:35:18.280 --> 0:35:20.120 Rest of them on their way, because sometimes you got 0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:22.200 to do what God gave you to do and nobody's 0:35:22.239 --> 0:35:24.279 gonna get it, but you still got to do it. 0:35:24.480 --> 0:35:25.319 So he sent them. 0:35:25.200 --> 0:35:27.880 Away and they carried it out, but on reaching the 0:35:27.920 --> 0:35:31.520 stone images near Gilgal, he himself went back to Aglon 0:35:31.600 --> 0:35:32.240 and said, your. 0:35:32.080 --> 0:35:34.400 Majesty, I have a secret message for you. 0:35:34.600 --> 0:35:38.319 And the king said to his attendant Lebos, and they 0:35:38.320 --> 0:35:40.680 all left. And he had then approached him while he 0:35:40.760 --> 0:35:43.240 was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace, 0:35:43.280 --> 0:35:46.279 and said, I have a message from God for you, 0:35:46.480 --> 0:35:49.440 and the king gets up from his seat. Stop knowing nothing, 0:35:50.960 --> 0:35:53.840 because if they came in from the tribe of Benjamin, 0:35:53.880 --> 0:35:59.560 they were probably searched for weapons, but the warriors always 0:35:59.560 --> 0:36:03.320 carried the weapon on the opposite leg that they intended 0:36:03.360 --> 0:36:07.239 to draw it from. So if you come in here 0:36:07.280 --> 0:36:13.200 from a right handed tribe, we're gonna check your left thigh. 0:36:13.440 --> 0:36:16.680 But God told him to strap it to the right one. 0:36:16.920 --> 0:36:20.760 That was the unchecked leg. That was the one nobody 0:36:20.800 --> 0:36:23.640 thought to look for. That was the thing that they 0:36:23.640 --> 0:36:26.440 didn't even see as a threat. That was the thing 0:36:26.480 --> 0:36:29.799 that's nuck in unexpected. There are some of you who 0:36:29.840 --> 0:36:33.399 are in here today and you are checking the wrong leg. 0:36:34.400 --> 0:36:39.560 You are checking the wrong source, you are checking the circumstance. 0:36:40.200 --> 0:36:44.240 But God, when he gets ready to deliver his people 0:36:44.600 --> 0:36:50.720 from eighteen years of captivity, he uses somebody who can conceal. 0:36:50.920 --> 0:36:56.760 Everybody say, conceal the weapon on his right leg. Why 0:36:56.880 --> 0:36:58.200 his right leg? 0:36:58.719 --> 0:37:02.120 Verse twenty one tells us because when the moment came, 0:37:02.640 --> 0:37:14.359 he had reached with his rejected hand, with his weak hand, 0:37:15.440 --> 0:37:19.200 with his left out hand, with his looked. 0:37:18.880 --> 0:37:22.360 Overhand, with his less than hand. 0:37:24.400 --> 0:37:29.680 You keep thinking, God, he's going to use your special strength. 0:37:29.960 --> 0:37:34.400 He's going to use your secret weakness as a secret webbit. 0:37:40.840 --> 0:37:45.840 And old fat Egglon never saw it come in, Old Egglon, 0:37:46.600 --> 0:37:49.399 he didn't check that right leg, did he? And verse 0:37:49.440 --> 0:37:52.879 twenty one says he took that sword that he made 0:37:52.920 --> 0:37:57.160 himself from his right thig Boone plunged it into the 0:37:57.239 --> 0:38:02.120 king's big old king Hippo belly walked out, blew a trumpet, 0:38:02.200 --> 0:38:05.000 got ten thousand mobabides dead, and the land had. 0:38:04.920 --> 0:38:12.040 Rest for eighty years. Why Why did God give them 0:38:12.320 --> 0:38:14.320 the victory? How? 0:38:15.320 --> 0:38:19.600 How did God give them the victory? It was from 0:38:19.680 --> 0:38:26.280 something concealed. Not only was it concealed, it was crossed. 0:38:27.320 --> 0:38:32.600 It came from the other side, which was the right side. 0:38:32.800 --> 0:38:35.719 You don't get it. You're the right one for this, 0:38:37.000 --> 0:38:39.680 And what you think is wrong with you is what 0:38:39.880 --> 0:38:45.120 makes you right for this. What was your Hey, work 0:38:45.160 --> 0:38:48.120 on yourself, get yourself better, do what you can do 0:38:48.200 --> 0:38:51.719 to increase your strengths. But know in the meantime that 0:38:51.800 --> 0:38:54.640 you serve a god who gave a victory to a 0:38:54.719 --> 0:39:00.040 nation over an eighteen year problem, and he used a 0:39:00.120 --> 0:39:03.560 left handed warrior that nobody saw come in. 0:39:04.080 --> 0:39:04.879 So turn to your. 0:39:04.760 --> 0:39:08.279 Neighbor and say, look to the left, because it's going 0:39:08.320 --> 0:39:12.439 to come from in this season, and unexpected place. It's 0:39:12.480 --> 0:39:16.280 going to come from in this season, and unexpected blessing. 0:39:16.520 --> 0:39:17.960 It's going to come from. 0:39:17.760 --> 0:39:22.800 In this season, an unexpected experience. It's coming from the left. 0:39:24.719 --> 0:39:30.319 It's a concealed weapon. Everybody say concealed, and he crossed it. 0:39:30.440 --> 0:39:33.719 Everybody say crossed. But I gotta show you. 0:39:33.680 --> 0:39:34.319 One more thing. 0:39:35.600 --> 0:39:40.239 Not only was it concealed, and not only was it 0:39:40.320 --> 0:39:44.319 crossed where it came from the other side, But the 0:39:44.360 --> 0:39:51.080 Bible says that this dagger, this sword in verse sixteen. 0:39:52.160 --> 0:39:58.040 Was about a cubit. And I had to look up. 0:40:00.000 --> 0:40:00.840 I'm just being honest. 0:40:00.880 --> 0:40:03.280 I don't remember they talked to me, probably in seminary, 0:40:03.320 --> 0:40:03.960 but I forgot. 0:40:04.239 --> 0:40:09.080 I had to look up how big is a cubit? Actually, 0:40:09.120 --> 0:40:10.880 what I googled was how big is a cubit? In 0:40:10.880 --> 0:40:15.360 American I don't want them meters? Well, I look like 0:40:15.400 --> 0:40:16.520 international annoying thing. 0:40:16.600 --> 0:40:25.840 No, how big was the instrument that ended eighteen years 0:40:25.880 --> 0:40:26.560 of oppression? 0:40:27.880 --> 0:40:29.160 And Google told. 0:40:29.080 --> 0:40:34.000 Me something, and God told me something, and Google told me. 0:40:33.920 --> 0:40:37.360 That a cubit is eighteen inches. 0:40:40.040 --> 0:40:48.480 I said, what now, we're celebrating eighteen years eighteen years. 0:40:48.160 --> 0:40:51.040 And honest, eighteen No, that's another Bible verse. 0:40:52.040 --> 0:41:02.280 Eighteen years of captivity ended with eighteen inches of faith. 0:41:03.800 --> 0:41:07.200 So you mean to tell me that for every year 0:41:07.560 --> 0:41:12.480 they were oppressed, e Hud made a weapon an inch bigger. 0:41:14.239 --> 0:41:19.919 An inch for every year, an inch for every year. 0:41:20.760 --> 0:41:23.319 Do you know how long eighteen years is? 0:41:24.200 --> 0:41:26.720 That's as long as my oldest son has been alive. 0:41:27.800 --> 0:41:30.319 Do you know how long eighteen years is? 0:41:31.200 --> 0:41:37.240 Eighteen years is seventy two summer, springs, winter and falls. 0:41:37.320 --> 0:41:43.160 That's eighteen years. Eighteen years is a long time. Is 0:41:43.280 --> 0:41:46.840 six thousand, five hundred and seventy four days. 0:41:47.000 --> 0:41:48.839 That's eighteen years. 0:41:49.040 --> 0:41:53.520 That's one one hundred and fifty seven thousand, seven hundred 0:41:53.560 --> 0:41:54.920 and eighty eight hours. 0:41:54.960 --> 0:41:56.600 That's eighteen years. 0:41:57.040 --> 0:42:03.279 That's nine million, four hundred and sixty three thousand, two 0:42:03.360 --> 0:42:09.279 hundred and eighty minutes. And all of a sudden, ten 0:42:09.400 --> 0:42:17.640 million minutes of oppression ended. Eighteen years of oppression ended 0:42:18.239 --> 0:42:22.600 because of eighteen inches in the left hand, not. 0:42:22.680 --> 0:42:27.520 The right hand. So God said, on this eighteenth year 0:42:27.760 --> 0:42:33.360 anniversary of elevation, Church, what do you have in your hand? 0:42:33.600 --> 0:42:34.360 It's enough? 0:42:41.120 --> 0:42:45.400 Eighteen years is long, eighteen inches is short. 0:42:45.840 --> 0:42:49.279 But isn't this what God always does to use the 0:42:49.320 --> 0:42:52.160 small thing to take down the big thing? 0:42:54.560 --> 0:42:59.120 Isn't this what He always does, taking the mystery of 0:42:59.160 --> 0:43:02.960 the gospel to mystify the scholar and the wisdom of 0:43:03.000 --> 0:43:05.919 this age, to confound it to be brought to note. 0:43:06.880 --> 0:43:09.960 So I came to remind this church that God called 0:43:10.000 --> 0:43:12.040 me to pastor this year. 0:43:12.880 --> 0:43:14.520 This is a church that. 0:43:14.600 --> 0:43:19.160 Believes in eighteen inch miracles. 0:43:21.239 --> 0:43:23.480 Hallelujah Jesus. 0:43:26.719 --> 0:43:33.360 Eighteen inches is all it took for eighteen years to 0:43:33.440 --> 0:43:34.200 come to an end. 0:43:35.239 --> 0:43:38.840 Eighteen inches, they say. 0:43:39.880 --> 0:43:44.600 They say that the greatest journey and the longest trip 0:43:44.960 --> 0:43:52.120 in human experience is eighteen inches from the head to 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:59.279 the heart. These numbers are approximate, but the truth is 0:43:59.400 --> 0:44:05.880 very relevant because some of you are eighteen inches away 0:44:06.760 --> 0:44:12.239 from faith. Isaiah said, I know he called me in 0:44:12.320 --> 0:44:16.240 my head. I know he chose me before I was born. 0:44:17.480 --> 0:44:22.520 But sometimes my heart gets discouraged and I say to myself, 0:44:23.480 --> 0:44:30.360 I spent my strength in vain. It was all for nothing. 0:44:30.840 --> 0:44:34.759 Have you ever felt that way? I feel that way 0:44:34.800 --> 0:44:41.480 sometimes talking to you. But I have to remember now, 0:44:41.480 --> 0:44:46.840 and you have to remember eighteen inches takes time, and 0:44:46.920 --> 0:44:48.879 some of the things that you believe in your head 0:44:48.880 --> 0:44:51.239 haven't made it to your heart yet. And when they do, 0:44:52.920 --> 0:44:57.000 when you really believe that I'm not less than I'm 0:44:57.080 --> 0:45:03.200 left handed, they say I'm weird. 0:45:03.719 --> 0:45:09.320 God says, I'm wired by him. The Master workman. 0:45:11.080 --> 0:45:12.880 And if I can find a way to preach to 0:45:12.920 --> 0:45:16.080 you over the next few weeks as. 0:45:15.960 --> 0:45:19.400 I launch my book, Do the New You, I'm. 0:45:19.239 --> 0:45:23.120 Going to try to get you to see that God 0:45:23.440 --> 0:45:28.040 has brought you to this moment of your life because 0:45:28.080 --> 0:45:31.840 you are a weapon in his hand to do good 0:45:32.520 --> 0:45:33.480 for His kingdom. 0:45:35.040 --> 0:45:38.080 So the next time you feel. 0:45:37.800 --> 0:45:41.759 Like Isaiah and you feel concealed and you say, God, 0:45:41.960 --> 0:45:43.560 I can't see how it's going to work out, and 0:45:43.600 --> 0:45:45.279 I don't see how it's going to happen, and I'll 0:45:45.280 --> 0:45:48.480 see why I have to go through this. Remember it's concealed, 0:45:49.680 --> 0:45:54.480 but it's not canceled. It is still active in your life. 0:45:55.400 --> 0:45:57.560 And this weapon of the double edged sword of the 0:45:57.600 --> 0:46:01.840 Word of God is in your hand today. For Isaiah said, 0:46:01.840 --> 0:46:05.480 and I echo, Yet what is. 0:46:05.520 --> 0:46:08.080 Due mean is in the Lord's hand. 0:46:09.360 --> 0:46:12.160 Stop looking at how small it is in your hand, 0:46:13.000 --> 0:46:16.399 and start realizing how powerful. 0:46:16.040 --> 0:46:17.319 His hand is. 0:46:17.719 --> 0:46:21.239 He's got you in his hand, Church, He's got us 0:46:21.520 --> 0:46:24.880 in his hand. I've seen it in the baptism tank. 0:46:25.200 --> 0:46:28.759 I've seen it in the boardroom. I've seen it at 0:46:28.760 --> 0:46:32.840 the bottom, I've seen it in the breakthrough. I'm still 0:46:33.200 --> 0:46:36.640 in his hand. And if you know you're in his hand, 0:46:37.200 --> 0:46:38.880 Lift your hands and give him. 0:46:38.719 --> 0:46:47.520 Praise for eighteen years. Thank you for joining us. 0:46:47.840 --> 0:46:50.279 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 0:46:50.360 --> 0:46:51.080 this ministry. 0:46:51.440 --> 0:46:53.840 Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 0:46:54.320 --> 0:46:56.799 You can click the link in the description to give now, 0:46:57.400 --> 0:47:01.280 or visit Elevation Church dot org slash pots for more information. 0:47:01.800 --> 0:47:04.920 And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You 0:47:04.960 --> 0:47:06.160 can share it with your friends. 0:47:06.440 --> 0:47:08.719 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 0:47:08.760 --> 0:47:10.879 share it on your social stories and tag us at 0:47:10.920 --> 0:47:11.759 Elevation Church. 0:47:11.840 --> 0:47:18.560 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.